Built on a different premise: that the skin does not need to be stripped to be restored.
At its center is tamanu: sourced from the Mekong Delta, where a cooperative of 300 farmers tends the trees through Helvetas Vietnam's regenerative program. Dense with calophyllolide and fatty acids, tamanu has been used in Pacific and Southeast Asian skin healing for centuries. Around it: sea buckthorn, a Sun herb whose carotenoids give the oil its faint amber warmth; jojoba, structurally closer to human sebum than any other plant oil; and wild-harvested Boswellia sacra resin from the Dhofar mountains of Oman, traditionally distilled by the same families who tend the trees.
The aromatic profile is a botanical correspondence — frankincense grounds, grapefruit lifts, palmarosa (a grass historically used by women across South Asia) bridges the two.
This formula began as a personal experiment at 37, after sunspots appeared on my cheeks and every recommended product felt like a betrayal of everything I believed about the body and the land. Six months of daily use: as cleanser, moisturizer, and repair oil, changed my skin and eventually became this.
Use 2–3 drops on damp skin. Massage in. For cleansing, apply with a warm cloth. Can be extended to neck, hair, and body.
Skin Potion No.1, Natural Facial Oil, 4oz
Tamanu · Calophyllum inophyllum Sourced from the Mekong Delta, where a Helvetas Vietnam cooperative has transformed tamanu cultivation across all 13 provinces of Tra Vinh — creating year-round income for over 300 farming families and producing nearly 100 tons of virgin oil annually. The trees are tended, not mined.
Frankincense · Boswellia sacra Sourced from FairSource Botanicals, a regeneration project working directly with harvesters in the wadis and mountains around Salalah, Oman. A blend of Sha'abi resin from the sub-coastal plains and Hojary from the highland mountains. FairSource has spent nearly 20 years partnering with the Omani government and local stakeholders to promote sustainable harvesting, fair compensation, and propagation of wild Boswellia sacra populations — including a nursery established specifically to support regeneration of trees affected by camel grazing. Boswellia sacra grows only in Oman and Yemen, in limestone cliffs and arid mountain valleys called wadis. It is among the oldest traded aromatics on earth.
